Nationals Need to Make Decision on Rookie Star After Pointless Two Game Benching

The Washington Nationals are not doing anyone any favors by keeping their former top prospect on the bench.

Apr 2, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Washington Nationals centre fielder Dylan Crews (3) attempts to catch a fly ball against the Toronto Blue Jays during the second inning at Rogers Centre. | Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

The Washington Nationals are not off to the best of starts sitting at 6-9 and now coming off a series loss against the lowly Miami Marlins.

While there have certainly been some individual bright spots so far both in the lineup and on the pitching staff, things overall for the team have not clicked and in turn place them three games under .500 barely more than two weeks into the season.

If Washington was ever going to contend to make a return to the playoffs this season, they were going to need breakout performances from numerous of their young players.

One of those young hopeful future stars is their former top prospect who entered the year as the favorite to be the National League Rookie of the Year in outfielder Dylan Crews.

Though Crews has not performed well at the plate at all to begin his first full season in Major League Baseball, the current strategy from over the weekend did not seem to make much sense.

After another hitless day in the Friday opening game victory over Miami, Crews find himself on the bench for each of the next two, both of which ended in losses and yesterday's in an 11-4 domination.

There was no injury reported on the rookie nor any transaction made, he just simply was not on the field and did not get an at-bat in either game.

The ugly truth with Crews right now is that his slash line of .116/.156/.116 over the first 12 games of the season has been poor enough to justify sending him down to Triple-A in order to tune some things up and gain confidence back.

It wouldn't be the way anyone -- least of all Crews himself -- wanted things to go, but no one would blame the Nationals if that was the decision they made.

Sending Crews down would at least allow him to get reps and at-bats, something he clearly needs right now as he tries to work through the struggles.

Keeping him on the bench does not benefit anyone as a demotion seems inevitable anyway given the way he is hitting right now.

If that's the route Washington is going to take, they need to take it now rather than continuing to shake the confidence and development of Crews by benching him for two straight days.

The 23-year-old will likely get some more chances before that happens which is also reasonable, but the Nationals must not waste valuable reps moving forward.

Crews very well still could be a superstar if he makes some adjustments and figures out how to transition to hitting big league pitching.

That can only happen from him getting off the bench and back on the field, though.